Vote with your ears

Monday night the majority of the Cave Creek Town Council voted with their eyes, as they saw  20‑plus merchants stand and emotionally tell them they could not survive without raising the sound level again to at least 75 to 80 dBA.

The same majority of the council ignored what the town staff and the town attorney had recommended and the objective history and facts the citizens presented.

Fact 1: The existing ordinance is 70 dBA max in the commercial core, the citizens sought no change.  This was the town staff’s recommendation.

Fact 2: This existing standard of 70 dBA is up from the 65 dBA max the town had in 2005.

Fact 3: The town marshal did over 32 sound measurements on two special event weekends  and only four readings were over the 70 dBA level and those levels were due to illegal outdoor amplified music.

Fact 4: The commercial zone sound standard of 75 dBA will now apply to those residential properties directly adjacent to commercial property where previously the residential standard of only 60 dBA applied. This is an enormous increase in allowable sound levels on the residential properties.

Fact 5: The residents have already compromised on other measurement standards.

Yet another totally ignored fact was a financial report given by the town accountant that documented the major sales tax components revealing: The restaurant sales tax was only third on the components list and only represents 14 percent of the total sales tax. Now we all know that many of the restaurants in town do not even have loud music, so the “loud music merchants” probably generate less than half (maybe 7 percent) of the total sales tax revenue.

Yet the town council in the amended first ordinance reading, voted to up the sound level standard to 75 dBA in response to this very small group of bar owners. Note, I say small group because many of them are respectful and are responsive to the ears of their neighbors living in and around the town core, so now we are down to even less  of the “loud music merchants” providing sales tax revenues. 

Don Sorchych, whose paper now seems to be totally ignoring  the citizens’ factual presentations, may have said it best two years ago when he wrote, “If one added up all of the votes of business owners (many of whom live elsewhere) it would be a  pittance compared to the homeowners, so I would not, if I were the business owners, arouse the sleeping giant of the Cave Creek voters who are notoriously well informed and prone to vote ... ”  Thanks Don!

And here sleeping giant, is where you can vote with your ears ... the only council people who supported and voted for maintaining the 70 db level were Gil Lopez and Grace Meeth, as well as the mayor.

So those of you who cherish quality of life and live near the core, where the sound from these few bar owners is the greatest, or those of you who live further away and still hear the noise, or those of you who just respect those who do live closer; please consider this lack of sensitivity to the citizens ears when you do vote in this election.

And then, please come down to the town hall for the second reading of this new 75 dBA ordinance and stand on your feet and let the town council know how you feel about it. The “loud sound merchants” were there in force this past Monday.

I have been proud to work with many of my fellow citizens: Gail Clement, Bruce Becwar, Roger Kohrs, Rita Gosnell, Patti Windes, Andrea Markowitz. We are all trying very hard to come to a reasonable and enforceable sound ordinance for the few number of “sound machines” that exceed reason, but we need your support as seemingly the other council members need to see more and hear less.

Bob Moore
Cave Creek